Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The Republican candidate picking process picked a repugnant candidate for the Senate, which might mean that a potential switch in representation (as Senator Michael Bennet was considered vulnerable) won't happen. They picked Darryl Glenn, who among other things would put Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court if he had the chance. Reading about him, Mr. Glenn redefines political loose cannonness and jerkiness. (And I could say worse.)

This is good news for Democrats, obviously bad news for Republicans, and that's basically good for everybody, even if the Repubs don't realize it.

According to one Web site, the Smoky Cape lighthouse is the newest lighthouse in Australia, i.e., the most recently built. It's in New South Wales (so not far from Sydney), in a national park (Hat Head) and you can also stay in the guest accommodations, which used to be the lighthouse keeper's dwellings.

“I believe that people vote individually, evaluating each race. We have very strong Senate candidates and they will run their own races,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is not up for reelection this year.

In recent elections, however, the macro political environment has had as big an impact on results and candidate quality, experts say.

“They’re whistling past the graveyard,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, when asked about GOP skepticism of a presidential coattail effect in 2016. “To deny there’s coattails is laughable. It’s a very polarized era.”

In a report published last year, UVA’s Center for Politics observed the correlation between presidential and Senate voting exceeded 80 percent in the past two presidential elections.

This is why I'm hoping that the attempts to dump Trump at the convention come to naught. Because a bad Republican Presidential candidate is good for the country (as long as he doesn't get elected).

I'm back. And apparently, so is helium. This is to the delight of people who need MRI exams and children's birthday parties everywhere.

You can search my blog and see what I've previously written about the potential helium crisis -- which was a real concern, definitely. But the discovery of lots and lots and lots of helium under Tanzania may make the helium crisis fade, at least for now.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

A couple of posts ago I discussed the specter of Pestilence in the form of drug-resistant bacteria. Since then, it has been reported in many media outlets that the gene that confers resistance to colistin, mcr-1, was found again, this time in a tissue sample from a pig.

Advocates who track antibiotic resistance, especially in agriculture, reacted to the news of U.S. colistin resistance by emphasizing the gravity this finding deserves.

“This shows that we are right on the verge of getting into the territory of routine bacterial infections being untreatable,” Steven Roach, the food safety program director at the Food Animal Concerns Trust, said by phone. “It underscores the failure of both the federal government and Congress, and the industry, to get a grasp of the problem. We can’t continue to drag our feet on taking needed action.”

In what outstanding dream would I partakeof a dramatic link with her? How couldI forge my naked sword, with which I'd makemy welcomed thrusts? In fantasies the goodis even better, tastes more vivid, touchenhanced, each aspect magnified beyondthe norm -- so there we are amazing, muchakin to lustful gods as we respondin twain, our climaxes like earthquakes, sighstornadic and our love surpassing boundsof reason as our junctured bodies riseand fall and oceanic rhythm soundsaugment our mating cries. A dream, of course,unreal -- reality lives at its source.

Point Montara Lighthouse/Hostel might not be California's best-known lighthouse, but like most of the other lights on the California coast, it's still remarkably scenic. It's not very tall, but when a lighthouse is high over the ocean, that's not necessary.

Monday, June 13, 2016

"Even the formation of this El Niño was a weird one, with it sitting in a holding pattern for much of 2014 before finally getting going in March 2"015 and subsequently rocketing into the record books later that year. It’s a good reminder that El Niño is like a snowflake. No two are alike."

Here's the best summary of his idea, which comes near the end of the article:

"But how about this for an idea? I want every known ISIS sympathiser in America on FBI files, including every name on the no-fly list, to be banned with immediate effect from buying a gun, so we can try to save American lives."

That sounds really good to me as an idea. In fact, it sounds downright familiar.

"If someone is on record as a) making threats, b) attempting or indicating a desire for suicide, c) expressing a desire to harm or injure another person, d) being a professed member of a group or groups that advocate violence toward a different group, e) having a psychological condition or having a family member with a known psychological condition, and f) writing a rambling manifesto expressing threats, endangerment, or hate for other people or groups -- their name should go on a basic "no gun" list. It means they can't buy guns and they can't have guns."

See? Simple. Great minds think alike. Or, great thoughts get thought by great thinkers.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Long long ago when I started this blog, I ruminated on the fate of humankind. And I was then, and am now, concerned about overpopulation of this planet of remarkable variety and finite resources.

For long before history, and during much of the historical period, population was controlled by natural factors. The amount of available food. Wars with neighboring tribes. Weather and climate conditions out of the norm, leading to deprivation and migration.

We humans have done real well at fighting disease, and many other health factors that used to lay waste to wide swaths of the human population. We have only just recently emerged from the period when the common cold and the common flu were feared as potential killers. Between vaccination and antibiotics, many of the scourges have been reduced to either minimal threats -- or memories.

But there is always the risk of infection, even from small wounds. And overuse of antibiotics has led to increasing resistance in the adaptable bacterial population. So much so that in fact, what has long been feared has now been found:

That's right folks; you can read the article for the particulars, but here's the dangerous bottom line:

"CDC director, Dr Tom Frieden, said: 'It basically shows us that the end of the road isn't very far away for antibiotics, that we may be in a situation where we have patients in our intensive-care units, or patients getting urinary tract infections for which we do not have antibiotics'

Now, we aren't going to get laid low as humanity by this anytime soon. But it does prove that nature finds a way. As we exploit all that our Earth has to offer, the Earth and its denizens may still have ways to restore the balance. We won't necessarily agree with those ways.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

In many discussions of climate change with climate change deniers, I cite many different kinds of phenological data as indicating primarily one direction of change -- warmer. The vast majority of these kinds of data is consistent with a warming world.

"Using images from two Landsat satellites, the researchers found that “extensive greening” is occurring in the tundra along Canada’s northern coast, as well as in the tundra of Quebec, Labrador and western Alaska."

They also noted that shrubs are growing in tundra areas, areas previous only covered with tundra ground cover plants, like this:

Now, some may argue that this could actually be a good thing. Or they might argue that it isn't due to warming, it's due to higher CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere (not necessarily good, either). Those are discussions for another day. What this does show is that yet another phenological data trend is in the direction to be expected with warming climate.

In Clive Cussler's Sahara (which became a decent action flick with Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz), the adventurers discover a derelict Confederate blockade runner buried in the sands of the Sahara Desert that just happens to have lots of Confederate gold bars in its hold.

The name of the ship was the Bom Jesus, from Portugal. Here's the neat part:

"It was found by the miners as they drained a man-made salt water lake along the Skeleton Coast, and while plenty of shipwrecks have been discovered along the stretch, this was the oldest and the first to be loaded down with coin and ivory tusks."

Now, what I'd like to know is why this is news in the Daily Mail and Fox News (and other media sources) in 2016, when the ship was actually discovered in April 2008. My guess is that they have finally been able to excavate it (but the articles don't say that). Either that, or they waited until now to announce it, considering that it's on private diamond mine land. (Beach, actually.)

Still, it is a pretty amazing story -- not just based on a true story, but an actual true story.

Is she deserving? Certainly. Could there have been other choices? Certainly too. I want to know where Michelle Keegan will end up. And she'd better be on the list. Same goes for Nina Agdal.

But... back to Stella. It's important to note that to celebrate the selection in the article linked above, she took off most of her clothes. That's always nice when a hot woman does that.

I won't select a picture from the article, that wouldn't be right. So here's a different one.

* She and Miley Cyrus were an item for awhile. May have just been a fling, but if you're flinging, why not with the world's hottest woman? I certainly would take that option. Miley's gender preference is certainly fluid, as she's apparently strongly back with Liam Hemsworth now.

Unfortunately, the most recent update is May 6. It's been a month since then! C'mon NASA, get it together.

Here's a more recent article about Juno from Scientific American, explaining why this mission is going to Jupiter. Still doesn't say how far away it is. Best I could do is find out that on May 27, Juno crossed the boundary where the planet's gravitational pull exceeds that of the now-distant Sun.

I don't know if I have looked for a lighthouse in Quebec, Canada before; I probably did, but I haven't had a chance to check back. So I looked in Quebec again, and I found what is now an abandoned lighthouse in the middle of the lower St. Lawrence River -- Île Rouge (Red Island).

The problem with this lighthouse is that all but one of the pictures I could find of it are on this Web page at Lighthouse Friends about it:

According to the page, the lighthouse once was a place you could stay overnight and get dinner and breakfast. But that ended and the lighthouse is now abandoned, but it is part of the Saguenay - St. Lawrence Marine Park.

So here's one picture from the Lighthouse Friends page and the other one I found that isn't.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Search my blog for "Kate Beckinsale". You'll find I have several commentaries on this beauteous British actress.

And she's currently the leading lady in the movie Love and Friendship, which is getting great critical reviews, and is one I'd like to see in the theaters.

Most recently, she showed up at the Christian Dior Cruise 2016/2017 presentation in a superb white dress that utilized the side curvature of her bosom as a wonderful fashion accessory. (The actual common term for this is in the headline.)